How to make buttonholes manually: step by step instructions

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:47

Details are an important part of the image, and they need to be given no less attention when tailoring clothes than the choice of fabric, its color, style and clarity of seams. Therefore, it is important for beginner tailors to know the types of buttonholes and how to make them yourself. If you follow the instructions, it's not that hard. In this article, we will look at how to make buttonholes manually on a typewriter and with a needle and thread.

Types of loops

In total, there are 5 types of loops in light clothing. This is:

• stitched buttonholes;
• loops from tucked cord;
• straight flat fabric buttonholes;
• air;
• turned.

The location of the welt loops on the fabric can be different: transverse, lobar or oblique. But the sewing process itself has no fundamental differences.

Sewn buttonholes

This type of buttonhole can be done by hand. And you can also use a sewing machine, choosing for thisspecial mode. The purpose of overcasting is to prevent the fabric from fraying on the button hole. You can perform such a loop both in the same color with the product, and in contrast. It depends on the idea of the item being made. So how do you make your own buttonhole by hand?

First, you need to mark the places of cuts with chalk or a special marker, which subsequently disappears completely. It is necessary to draw on the front side of the future product. You need to start and finish sewing the loop with thread with bartacks. They are clearly visible in the following picture.

You need to make bartacks in this way: a few even stitches forward, then back and forward again.

It is not necessary to sheathe the place of the product where the slot will subsequently be made, leaving a small gap. So the thread with which we overcast the loop will remain intact. Overcast first one side, and then the other.

But you can't do a perfectly even overcast buttonhole by hand. Therefore, the manual method is relevant only for those needlewomen who do not have sewing machines. However, in the presence of this miracle of technology, which facilitates the tailor's work, the process will not differ fundamentally. The loops will only become smoother and neater. But still, let's take a closer look at how to make buttonholes for buttons with your own hands using a sewing machine.

First, again, we mark everything with chalk (it is important that it is always sharp) or a marker on the front side of clothes, underwear, etc., based on the size of the button. The second is to installa special foot on the machine, which is specially designed for sewing buttonholes. It looks something like the one below.

Next, select and set the desired mode, not forgetting to first select the type of loop we need.

After stitching, carefully cut holes between the stitches with a thin blade. Everything, the swept loop is ready.

Loops from darted cord

This is how delicate and airy they look.

How to make buttonholes by hand? It is not very difficult, and even the most experienced seamstresses can do it.

To make a steering wheel (this is the second name of this loop), you need to cut out a strip of fabric along an oblique (5 degrees), the width of which will be 3 cm. The length depends on the intended size. The loop must be sewn with stitches of approximately 1.5 mm, no more. Large stitches will make it difficult to turn the steering wheel out later. The strip should look like a funnel: at first a little narrower, and then wider. After the future loop is stitched, the excess fabric along the seam must be carefully cut off. This will help you turn the steering wheel out easily and it will stay straight.

You can turn the loop out with a needle, hooking it on the remaining thread and pushing it inward with a blunt end. Use a thimble, it will protect your fingers from injury.

After the cord is ready, it needs to be ironed, attaching with a pin to the ironing board at one end. The wheel does not need to be ironed, but only slightly ironed, holding the iron not to weight, because the productshould stay round, not flat.

Now you can sew the loop from the tuck cord to our product.

Loops from a straight strip of fabric

Let's look at the instructions on how to make buttonholes manually.

For this buttonhole, a strip 3.5 mm wide is cut out, and its length will be 4 cm plus two button diameters. Such a strip is folded in half inside, inside out, and then the folded edges are sewn together. From the edge you need to retreat 1 mm. Next, we fold the strip in half, but already across it, forming a triangle on the fold, and go through it with a transverse line. We bend the ends. Now the loop can be attached to the fabric. Equalize the ends. We attach to the front side at a distance of 4–6 mm from the cut of the thing. It is possible to process the edges of this fastener with a selection or turning.

Air loops

They are made from threads. It can be silk, floss, and so on. It all depends on whether there is a hidden fastener or not, whether it is a bright finish or a regular loop, and also on the thickness of the fabric. For example, on thin silk, other loops can look heavy and rough, while thin airy ones are just right. So how do you make buttonholes by hand?

The essence of the work is to make a loop of several layers of thread, and then trim it. The buttonhole diameter should be 1-2 mm wider than the button. How many arcs are needed for this loop, you need to look based on the thickness of the threads. For some, 3-4 is enough, and for thin silk, maybe 12 is notenough.

Buttonhole processing options can be varied. For example, a tatting seam, when everything is overcast with an ordinary buttonhole seam, but the knots are made either in front or in the back in a checkerboard pattern. A gedebo seam is also suitable. Thanks to this finish, a rib is formed on the loop along the entire length. Marking must be done from the wrong side. The "double loop" stitch is also well suited for sewing air loops. It also needs to be done from the inside out. Due to the fact that the needle is pushed into the loop not once, but twice, the seam is quite tight.

Overlaps

These loops are difficult to make. But there is a little trick that will help make the work of tailors easier. To ensure that the fabric does not crumble and is accurately marked, masking tape must be used.

How to make buttonholes by hand: sewing buttonhole step by step:

1. It is necessary to determine how long the loop will be. To do this, we use data on the diameter and thickness of the button, add 3–6 mm here. The width of the loop itself is 6 mm. We draw a loop on graph paper, placing thin plastic and gluing it with tape. For each of the loops, you need to make a piece of adhesive tape.
2. We carefully pass along the already finished frames with a seam with a stitch length of 1 mm. Also, for each individual loop, you need to prepare your own facing with a width of 6.5 mm. We pin the facing with safety pins to the front side of the bead, where the loop is planned. Now you need to lay two parallel seams from the wrong side, which will exactly match the front ones. Start and end of all seamsare exclusively in the corners.
3. Carefully cut through the facing first, and then the board itself and turn the edges of the facing to the wrong side. We sew all edges with bartack stitches.
4. We tack the pick-up to the board, completely pierce the layers with pins. Carefully and accurately glue the adhesive tape to the swept part and sew. The adhesive tape can be removed, the loop is ready.

It should be noted that such loops are used, as a rule, in the process of making thick outer garments such as coats.

We learned the basics of how to make buttonholes by hand. But sewing is a creative process. And fantasy is far from the last place here. It is especially cool to think and work on how to make a real decoration of the whole thing out of fasteners, and, of course, then proudly wear this original product.